


the self is not so weightless (nor whole and unbroken)

by frootlups



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Oppressing The British, SLIGHT canon divergence you'll know it when you see it., elrena luxord demyx and strelitzia party agenda....., if you can tell exactly how much i watched derry girls before this keep it to urself, sorry!!, the major character death is just the canonical one so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:47:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28472625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frootlups/pseuds/frootlups
Summary: here’s the thing: it’s very easy to be good at something when you either a) have incredible power fueling you because you’re possessed, or b) are a child among peers of other children. lauriam was, unfortunately, struggling with that concept.anyways.it turns out strelitzia had an entire life and friends outside of being lauriam's baby sister. not quite sure how to handle that one.
Relationships: Elrena & Lauriam (Kingdom Hearts), Lauriam & Strelitzia (Kingdom Hearts), Strelitzia & Demyx's Somebody (Kingdom Hearts), Strelitzia & Luxord's Somebody (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	the self is not so weightless (nor whole and unbroken)

**Author's Note:**

> happy new year!  
> insp by me missing my brother,,,,hes fine hes just very far away,,,,

“Do you know what she’s saying?” Demyx stage-whispered to a little girl next to him, eyes wide. 

She hummed her confirmation.

“Could you uh, I dunno, translate for me?” 

“Do you not — did nobody teach you the spell to fix your languages?” she asked.

“There’s a _spell_?” 

“Yeah. I only know like, 3 words in Frisian.” 

“ _Frisian_?” Demyx exclaimed. 

“What, did you think they spoke ‘Daybreak’ in Daybreak Town?”

Demyx very pointedly did not answer that question. 

“Anyways, it’s with your keyblade,” she continued, drawing her own, “Like, I’m speaking French right now, and you sound like _you're_ speaking English to me, and I probably sound like I'm speaking English to you too, because I’ve got the spell on. If I take it off, I’m still speaking French, and you’ll be speaking...whatever, but we won’t understand each other.” 

“So I could just speak Hawaiian and not worry about it?” Demyx summoned his Keyblade, and allowed her to walk him through the motions of casting the spell; it was technically a charm, and thus had to be affixed to something. Hers — and her name was Strelitzia, apparently — was on a purple necklace. Demyx attached his to an earring. 

“Say something,” he challenged. 

“Something,” Strelitzia replied, and rolled her eyes. “We both speak English, so unless you tell your charm to make everyone speak Hawaiian, I’m still just gonna sound like I’m speaking English.” 

“I guess that makes sense, huh?” He said, “thanks for teaching me that, you’re a lifesaver.”

“It’s just spoken languages right now,” she added, “but I heard Lady Invi is trying to make a kind to translate sign languages.”

They’re quiet for a moment. The woman Demyx was attempting to get information from has since moved on, so there was no reason for him to keep standing there.

“Well, uh, see you around?” Strelitzia said, tucking her legs up under herself on the bench. 

“I mean, do you wanna finish this mission with me? I get that we’re not in the same union, but—”

“Yep!” she interrupted, hopping to her feet and summoning — a cane? A cane in the style of her keyblade? Whatever, it was cool and she seemed fine. “Let’s go.” 

* * *

Lauriam returned with the teapot. “Your name is really Demyx?”

“Yeah dude, some people’s names just have x in them.”

“I...figured it was something like Myde, or Dyme.”

“That would be so fucking stupid! Why would I name myself _that_.”

“Why would you name yourself _Demyx_?” Elrena interjected from across the table, sewing a patch onto her jacket. They’d all gotten their old clothes back (or at least something that resembled their old clothes, particularly in Demyx’s case), and with a few upgrades to account for ten years worth of maturity, they were wearable again.

“That’s fair, yeah, I earned that one.” 

Lauriam hadn’t seen this sort of casual banter from them before. It went without saying Larxene’s barbs didn’t have the softer edge Elrena’s do. There was...something there, maybe, and his human heart felt left out in a way it hadn’t since the days of Anguis; like he’d been left out of a joke. Thankfully, Rould came back to the table with teacups soon, and he didn’t have to consider the reality of his role in Elrena’s — _Larxene’s_ — life being a _replacement_. 

“What’s that Litzy would say?” Rould asked, taking the teapot from Lauriam and pouring.

“Slàinte,” Demyx chorused, only to get hit on the back of the head by Elrena. 

“That’s for alcohol, idiot.” 

Lauriam, meanwhile, was frozen solid. “You all — you knew Strelitzia?” 

“Yeah, of course,” Demyx said easily, “Loved her.” 

Elrena, as always, connected the dots a bit faster. “Fuck," she started, "Did you not know we knew her?" 

"I believe." Rould twirled one of his rings. "We have some explaining to do."

* * *

“Okay, can I just check something?” Rould said, silencing the rabble with a wave. “Everyone else can see this dead body right?”

“It’s just Mariana,” Elrena said, and fiddled with her earrings.

“Yes! It’s Mariana! It’s Mariana’s corpse!”

“What, have you never seen a dead person before?” Strelitzia interrupted.

“Of course not!” 

“Brits are _weird_ ,” Elrena finished, affixing her own jewelry to the dead woman’s ears. “There. Settled.”

“Is no one else bothered by the fact Elrena just robbed a corpse?” Rould cried, looking less and less confident by the second.

“It’s not robbing. I _gave_ her something. Something she said she _wanted_ to be buried in.” She corrected, while Demyx positioned Mariana’s bangs just-so, to make Elrena’s addition less noticeable. 

“She’s right, it’s really reverse-robbing. Gnibbor!” He added. 

“Can we just get out of here before something catches us desecrating a dead woman?” Rould ducked his head out the viewing-room door and sent up a quick prayer. 

Elrena pushed it shut. “Somebody gave you a thesaurus and you never looked back, huh?” 

“Look, Rould, people die all the time around here! It’s just that we usually don't have a body and so we call it ‘going missing’.” Strelitzia rambled, and Rould caught sight of her pressing a small rock into the body’s hand.

"Surprise, the ancient woman who was always sick finally kicked it," Elrena added. 

“Nobody tell Rould that _he’ll_ die one day too,” Demyx emphasized, and made way for the door. 

As they filed out, Rould shut it tightly behind them. 

* * *

“I thought we were supposed to be _good_ at this,” Lauriam lamented as his third attempt at a Fira fizzled out on the cobblestone. 

“The qualifications for the Dandelions were arbitrary at best,” Elrena shrugged — which, easy for her to say, Thundagas came to her hand like breathing. 

Here’s the thing: it’s very easy to be good at something when you either a) have incredible power fueling you because you’re possessed, or b) are a child among peers of other children. Lauriam was, unfortunately, struggling with that concept. 

He gripped the pendant Strelitzia had lent him, that day in the fields. It’d been her mothers — not _his_ mother’s, because that would be too easy for their family — and when they’d dug through the box of things she’d left behind, Strelitzia had latched onto the necklace like a lifeline. She would relentlessly claim it was amethyst, and Lauriam hadn’t (and still didnt’t) have the heart to admit otherwise. 

Not everyone could be a prodigy, he supposed. The others had their elements, however obscure or ephemeral, but no one was patting him on the back for ‘grows plants really well’. But Strelitzia had been a prodigy, with the magic he’d hardly understood but tried desperately to encourage. Hindsight remained a perfect 20/20 — if he’d done more, helped her on those last missions, just been a _better_ _brother_ — she’d still be with him. With _them_.

“Hey,” Elrena said sharply, “What’s going on over there?” 

“Nothing,” Lauriam replied, “Just taking a breather.”

* * *

Strelitzia groaned. “When is Rould gonna get here? I have to meet up with my brother in like 20 minutes.” 

“He runs on British time,” Elrena replied, tossing a coin into the center fountain. 

“ _He’s_ right here,” The man of the hour called. Despite his odd ability to tell the time down to the minute from the sun (a trick from working on ships, he explained, but none of them _really_ believed him), Rould suffered from chronic lateness. 

“Speak of the devil.” 

“Anyways,” Strelitzia said, and reached into her pockets, “I made us all friendship necklaces out of some raccoon vertebrae.” There were five of them in her palm, thin wire wrapped around the points of bone and looped into leather cord. “You don’t have to wear them or anything. I just...want you to have them, I guess!” 

They’re all quiet for a moment. 

“You guys don’t think it’s weird, right?” 

“Oh fuck no, I think it’s _super_ weird. And I love it. Which one’s for me?” Demyx asked, shoving his face closer to her hand, as if he didn’t have a perfectly fine view already. 

Rould, rather than wait for any instruction, grabbed his out of the collection: one with small green beads on either side of the bone. The other two quickly followed suit, with Elrena predictably grabbing yellow and Demyx blue. 

“What are the other two for?” Elrena asked, making a valiant attempt at pulling the necklace over her head without disturbing her hair. 

“The purple one’s for me, and the orange one’s for Lauriam!” Strelitzia replied. 

Once everyone had their jewelry appropriately situated, Demyx summoned them for a group hug — something Elrena tolerated with limited enthusiasm — squeezing Strelitzia in the middle. “These are kickass,” he emphasized, “I love them.” Once he released the three of them, he added, “Where are you going now?”

“I think I left something at the warehouse downtown, which sucks,” Strelitzia explained, wringing her hands, “So I gotta stop there and see if I find it. Then I’m gonna go hang out with Lauriam. See you guys around?” 

“See you around,” they all chorused, and settled down for a lazy afternoon. 

**Author's Note:**

> i love u!!! if ur so moved i love comments  
> dw abt mariana she lived a full and happy life. they all knew her bc she owned the deli.
> 
> strelitzia's the only one she knows who calls the foretellers lady and lord,,,,,,,,,,, ava (agender ava nation rise up) is Master Ava she just likes the drama created by saying like. Lady Invi or Lord Ira. let her live.


End file.
